


a funny thing happened on the way to Brooklyn

by JBS_Forever



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: because i'm the worst, don't look too hard into it, mcu meets spider-verse, re-upload under a new account with the same name, thanks to comic book science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JBS_Forever/pseuds/JBS_Forever
Summary: Peter B. drags the pad of his thumb across the surface of the machine, hovering over the switch. “So what? You're Tony Stark's kid?”“W-what?” Peter sputters. “No! Why does everyone think that? He's my mentor. You know, Iron Man? He's, like, the greatest hero in the world.”Gwen snorts. “Not in my universe.”“Your universe has the right idea,” Tony says. He snaps his fingers at Peter B. “Hey, Tom Hanks, stop touching my stuff.”- - -(In which Gwen and Peter B. accidentally end up in the MCU.)





	a funny thing happened on the way to Brooklyn

**Author's Note:**

> Re-upload because I had an anxiety-induced meltdown and deleted my account (and regretted it almost immediately, but it was too late to save). This is a new account with the same name, so if you'd still like to follow me, this will be the place. I'm working on re-uploading my stories. I hope you'll stick with me while I get everything back to normal <3 Thanks for all the support!

The sky opens up in a wave of blue and red and purple spots, like pixels unfolding and peeling aside to reveal what's underneath. Peter sticks himself to the wall of a building and shields his eyes, peering into the lights of it.

“What the hell is that?” he asks.

Tony groans, a short and impatient sound in the comm. “Just when you think you've seen everything,” he says. “Stay clear, kid. That thing could be a vacuum and I've had enough space travel for a lifetime. You get sucked in, I'm not getting you out.”

“That's a little harsh, isn't it?”

“Life's a little harsh.”

On the street below, the animatronic rhino they've been chasing rears its head back, a tinny growl coming from somewhere inside its machinery. Peter glances at it, and for a moment it flickers like the tear in space above him and then it collapses in on itself in a swirl of motion, disappearing as fast it came.

Peter stares at the empty spot it leaves behind. “Uh, did anyone else see that? Or did I just hallucinate a rhino vanishing in midair?”

“Looks like our rift is gone too,” Tony says as he lands on the sidewalk. Peter looks for it again, but Tony is right. All the colors are gray, back to normal. The clouds over Queens hang heavy like nothing happened.

Peter joins Tony on the ground. It's not the first time they've come across something like this. A spike in criminals dressed as animals has taken New York by surprise the past couple months, for reasons Peter hasn't been able to figure out, but none of them have ever  _disappeared_  in front of him. For all the things he's seen in his life – other planets and aliens and wizards – he still finds it surprising he can be caught off guard.

He moves to voice this irritation, but as soon as he opens his mouth, the hairs on his arm stand straight. Warmth trickles down the base of his spine. He whirls around and comes face-to-face with two figures.

“What –?”

“Comic Con came a little early this year,” Tony says, and Peter blinks to clear the mugginess in his brain. The two people are dressed in costumes of their own, one in a skin-tight white and black material, a hood drawn over the mask hiding their face. The other one is dressed almost exactly like Peter, down to the spider emblem on his chest. He has a coat and sweatpants on over his suit, and he stands nearly a head taller than Peter, but Peter isn't threatened by his presence. His danger sense is twisting something else into his skin, something familiar and welcoming.

He pulls his mask off. “Wait a minute,” he says. “You – you're like me?”

The two follow his action. Peter expects the first figure to be a girl. He's not one to make assumptions, but his eye caught the curves of her body almost right away, so when she shakes out her blonde hair and grins a little, he doesn't think twice. It's the second figure, the one who looks an older version of him, albeit more ragged and run-down, that makes him take a step back. Even the girl does a double take.

“Whoa,” she says. “Creepy.”

The man steps forward, too close, and Peter jerks away. He stops and lets his eyes travel over Peter instead, seizing him up in tired curiosity and amusement. “It's like looking in a mirror. A younger, less attractive mirror, but you know what they say about wines. It's the age that makes them.”

“Yeah, no,” says the girl. “But you keep thinking that.”

Peter is having a hard time making his mouth work. He forces his gaze away from the man to look at the girl again and realizes they're both taking him in with amicable ease and none of the panic coursing through his veins.

“Who are you?” he manages.

“I'm you,” the guy says. He tilts his jaw and sniffs deeply, glancing behind him. “Just give it a few years and a major depressive episode. You'll get there. Is that a burger joint I smell?”

“Ignore him.” The girl steps forward, extending her hand. Peter feels electricity when their palms meet. “I'm Gwen Stacy. That's Peter B.”

Peter B. returns his attention long enough to turn his lips down with displeasure. “Peter  _B_? I don't even get to be the main Peter? Come on, I'm at least five years older than this kid. I should have seniority. My story came first.”

“ _Seniority_  is right.”

“Are you calling me old?”

“I'm not saying you're old, but I'm not saying – oh, whoa. You're Tony Stark, aren't you?” The declaration startles Peter back to reality. He forgot Tony was with him, and now that he's aware again, it's impossible not to notice the tense draw of Tony's shoulders and the exhaustion sprawled across his features.

“Something like that,” Tony says. “Mary-Kate and Ashley aside, who are you guys? Where did you come from?”

“And why do you look like me?” Peter asks.

“That's a little complicated,” Gwen says. “You're Peter, right? Peter Parker?”

“Uh, yeah. How do you know that?”

Peter B. stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets. “Because I'm Peter Parker too,” he says.

There are a few seconds of stunned silence while Peter absorbs this information, and then he chokes, lips numb, tongue heavy and thick. “W-what?”

“Ah, right,” Peter B. says, his expression softening. “You're a kid, aren't you? Of course you are. You look like you're Miles's age. Do you have any experience with multiple universes?”

“Multiple what?”

Gwen stops Peter B. from saying more with a quick elbow jabbed into his ribs. She darts a cautious look around, reminding Peter they're still very much in public and he's not wearing his mask. Most of the block had cleared during the rhino attack, but people are wandering out again, inspecting the damage, and it won't be long until they're all discovered. “Is there someone else we can talk? Somewhere more private?”

Tony's suit breaks apart, nanotech pulling each piece back into the compartment on his chest. “Lucky for you,” he says. “I've got just the place.”

 

* * *

 

“A multi-verse?' Peter asks as they walk down the long hallway. Headquarters upstate is not empty, not by any stretch, though barely anyone pays attention to their group. Only once does someone approach them, and it's a woman who needs Tony to sign off on a new shipment going out. She flicks a gaze to Peter B. and says, “Nice outfit.”

Peter B. gives her a charming smile. “Thanks, but I'm taken. Well, we're working it out. You know, marriages and all that.” He lingers to watch her leave, and rolls his eyes when Gwen says, “Dude, she wasn't hitting on you.”

Peter, still shell-shocked and back in his normal clothes, follows Tony through the building. Gwen is beside him, keeping close, but Peter feels the whoosh of air of someone leaving in a hurry, and he peers over his shoulder to see Peter B. ducking into a room and coming out with a box of pizza.

Tony notices it too, and it's to him that Peter B. says, “What? It was a conference room. There was no one in there. I can't let good pizza go to waste.”

“God, I'm too old for this,” Tony mutters.

“Can we get back to this multi-verse thing?” Peter asks, slowing to a halt as Tony presses his palm to the security device outside the elevator.

“Is that what we're calling it?” Peter B. says. He pulls a pizza slice free, wrestling with the trail of cheese stuck to the cardboard. “Has a nice ring to it.”

They pile into the elevator. It smells of chemicals and pepperoni, and Peter's stomach churns in mild disgust. The idea of food at a time like this makes him want to throw up. His mind is working in overdrive trying to process the idea of multiple versions of himself existing out there, and one of them is in front of him, licking sauce from his fingers, unperturbed like this is a daily occurrence for him.

“We don't know too much about it,” Gwen says. “Just that it exists and a bunch of us were transported to Miles's universe. We destroyed the original collider that brought us there.” She digs a small device from a slit in her suit and passes it over to Peter. “But now we have this thing.”

“A particle accelerator?”

“Pretty cool, right? Peni made it. Uh –” She pauses at Peter's confused noise. “She's another version of you.”

“She has a robot,” Peter B. says. “It's controlled by a spider. A little unrealistic if you ask me.”

“She let us borrow it,” Gwen continues, ignoring him. The doors open with a ding, and Tony takes them down another hallway and into a lab. “She couldn't come with us. I got this guy over here and we were on our way to visit Miles when it pulled us into this universe. Now it won't work.”

Peter turns the device over. He's not sure what to make of it. It's clunky and weighs a ton, and it would take a lot of tinkering to even get past the surface of it if it was only his doing. He hopes Tony has experience with colliders, because the only one Peter even knows of is the Hadron and he's never seen it in person much less figured out how it operates.

“Mr. Stark?” he says. He holds the device out and Tony takes it from him. Peter B. sets his pizza box on the edge of a counter and roams between tables.

Tony says, “How many of you are there?”

“There were six of us,” says Gwen. “But there could be more. We have no way of knowing. Peter makes seven now.”

“Endless Spider-People? I think I'd rather not know. Kid, come help me with this.”

On the other side of the room, Peter B. finds the miniature x-ray they've been working on. He drags the pad of his thumb across the surface of the machine, hovering over the switch. “So what? You're Tony Stark's kid?”

“W-what?” Peter sputters. “No! Why does everyone think that? He's my mentor. You know, Iron Man? He's, like, the greatest hero in the world.”

Gwen snorts. “Not in my universe.”

“Your universe has the right idea,” Tony says. He snaps his fingers at Peter B. “Hey, Tom Hanks, stop touching my stuff.”

Peter B. straightens. He comes to stand on Peter's other side and leans close, cupping a hand over his mouth as though he's about to whisper but making no move to keep his voice down. “Is he always this grumpy?”

“Um.”

Tony scowls in his direction. “Call me when you're not owned by Sony, tough shot.”

“Is he allowed to make jokes like that in this universe?” Peter B. asks. “'Cause I feel like he's not allowed to.” He twitches, suddenly, colors blinking across his body the same way the pixels tore open the sky to drop him through. He curls in on himself and lands hard on his knees. Gwen goes down too, but as fast as it comes on, it's over again, and they're both groaning.

“What was that?” Peter asks. Tony helps Gwen to her feet, so Peter gets a hold of Peter B. and yanks him up.

“Our atoms aren't jazzed about us being in the wrong dimensions,” Peter B. says, stretching out his arms “It's a whole thing.”

“What does that mean exactly?” says Tony. “You two will die if you stay here?”

Peter B. saunters over toward the pink box sitting on one of the tables and peeks inside it. “If we stay too long, yeah. Are these donuts for everyone?” he asks, and Peter feels the heat of Tony's glare beside him. Peter B. draws his hand back and shrugs. “Okay, don't touch the donuts, don't touch the tech. Lot of rules in this universe.”

“Jesus,” says Tony. “I thought one Peter Parker was bad. You got one in your universe too, Cressida?”

A silent look passes between Peter B. and Gwen, one that makes Peter's skin crawl in a familiar twinge of sorrow. He doesn't need his sixth-sense to recognize loss when he sees it. It has come to all of them. Parents, father-figures, best friends, significant others. Every Peter Parker suffers in every universe.

“Okay then,” Tony says. He pinches the bridge of his nose and huffs out a breath. “Let's just focus on getting you guys back home. How do we fix your particle accelerator?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Peter B. says. “Every goober has a different technique. Mess around with it and it'll fall into place like magic each time.”

“Goober?” Peter asks.

“It's what he calls things when he can't remember what they are,” says Gwen. “But he's not wrong. I think one of the wires was fried during our transport. It produces a lot of heat. I bet if we can fix the wire, we can get it to work again.”

Tony opens a drawer and pulls out a few sets of plastic glasses and protective gloves. “Shall we?” he says.

 

* * *

 

Peter B. slides up beside him while he flips through the pages of a book on particle accelerator research. Peter is skimming over the design blueprints and Peter B. leans against the counter and says, “So you and Tony Stark are close?”

Peter turns another page. “Yeah, kind of.”

Peter B. nods, drumming an uneven rhythm against the blacktop. “Is, uh … are your Ben and May alive?”

The question knocks the air from Peter's chest. He curls his hands over the book and meets Peter B.'s eyes. “May is.”

“Aw, jeez, kid,” Peter B. says. “I'm sorry. I was hoping your universe was different. Guess you wouldn't be Spider-Man if it was though.”

Peter doesn't want to hear the answer in return, because he's scared this is an older version of himself and his future might play out the same. Even though he knows it's different – Peter B. thought Tony was Peter's dad, which means he doesn't have a Tony of his own he's this close with – it still hurts when he says, “Are they both – are they gone in your world?”

“Yeah,” Peter B. says. “I lost Uncle Ben around your age. Aunt May passed away not too long ago.”

Tears spring to Peter's eyes. He rubs his arm across his face under the guise of wiping away sweat. Peter B. sees through him. Of course he does. He  _is_  Peter, in some form or another.

He takes Peter's shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze. “Look, you don't have to worry,” he says. “Just because it happened to me doesn't mean it'll happen to you. And you're not alone here, right? You're not doing this by yourself? Tony helps you?”

“Yeah,” Peter says thickly, swallowing the tears. “He helps me.”

“He's different than my Tony Stark,” says Peter B. “Better, I think.”

“How can you tell?”

“I just can. Trust me. When you're around as many people as I've been around, you start to figure out who's good and who's bad.”

“Is your Tony bad?”

“He's … it's not as simple as that,” Peter B. says, and there's enough finality in it that Peter can't argue. He knows not everything is black and white.

Peter B. releases him. He laughs and shakes his head. “Man, you look so much like me when I was your age. Still full of excitement and awe. Never let that go. Don't let this world take over you, all right? You do what you gotta do, but keep these people who help you close. You don't have to be in this alone.”

“Yeah, I know,” Peter says easily, tempering his emotions again. He looks back to where Tony and Gwen are taking a blowtorch to the particle accelerator and crinkles his nose at their choice of tools. Tony must feel the weight of his stare. He glances up and says, “You all right?”

“I'm good,” Peter says.

Gwen cuts the blowtorch and lowers her glasses. “Uh, what's that?”

“What's what?”

“That,” she says, pointing at the ground where a glowing circle of orange is surrounding her and Tony. An identical one forms around Peter and Peter B., and Peter hears Tony start an annoyed, “Fu–” before he's falling, wind rushing around him, and he slams into an unfamiliar floor.

Pain vibrates up his limbs.

“Ouch,” he says. Tony grumbles to his right. On his left, Gwen pushes herself up on her elbows. Somewhere along the way, Peter B. managed to grab his pizza box, and he's already got himself into a sitting position, prying open the lid.

“I hate when you do that,” he says.

“I'll keep that in mind,” echos a voice. Peter follows the sound and sees a red cloak he recognizes right away. Stephen Strange. They must be at Sanctum Sanctorum, based on the pictures Peter has seen of it and the knowledge he has of where Strange lives.

Tony gets to his feet before Peter does and pulls him up. Peter offers Gwen his hand.

“I never thought I'd be happy to see you,” Tony says. “But dear God, please make this Freaky Friday version of Peter go away.”

“I plan to send all three of our visiting friends back home,” Strange says.

Peter B. pauses with a slice of pizza halfway to his mouth. “Three?”

“Hey,” says a new voice, and a boy in a green jacket layered over a red hoodie appears at the top of the staircase in the middle of the foyer. He looks around Peter's age, happy to see them but apprehensive at the same time. Peter can tell he feels his sixth-sense go off the same time Peter's does.

“Whoa,” the boy says. “You look just like Peter.”

“We've been through this, Miles,” Peter B. says, like he's repeating himself for the hundredth time. “Multiple Peters. He's one of them.”

“You look like  _my_  Peter,” Miles corrects. “Just different colored hair and eyes. Uh, hey, I'm Miles.”

“H-hey,” Peter says.

Gwen gives Miles a sly grin, teasing in its nature. She meets him at the bottom of the stairs and they hover awkwardly, both of them going in for a hug and deciding against it, rocking back on their heels to create space between them.

“How'd you get here?” she asks.

Miles shrugs. “Same way you got here. Peni's goober.”

“Don't start using goober.”

“What, Peter can use goober and I can't?”

“Peter  _B_.” Gwen grabs his arm and guides him forward to where Peter is watching. “ _This_  is Peter.”

“ _I'm_  Peter,” Peter B. calls, muffled by pizza. Strange draws a circle in the air and it forms under Peter B., highlighting in a flash of light and dropping him through. He doesn't appear anywhere they can see.

Miles jumps a little. “That was ... interesting.” It happens again, the same thing as in the lab, and both he and Gwen spasm, atoms angry and frustrated. They both keel over, grabbing hold of their stomachs. Strange keeps them up with a grip on each of their arms and says, once it passes, “We need to get you back into your own universes.”

“Ow, man, that really hurt,” Miles says.

Gwen grimaces. “Welcome to our lives.”

“Take a moment and say your goodbyes,” Strange says. “I'm very busy, so don't take too long.” He waves a hand and Peter B. drops from the ceiling, landing in a heap at his feet. 

“You never get nicer, do you?” Peter B. asks.

“Don't antagonize me, Mr. Parker. I can still get into your world whenever I want.” The underlying threat makes Peter shiver, but Peter B. just gets his legs under him and stands. He approaches Miles and gives him a one-armed hug, smiles a lopsided smile.

“Leap of faith,” he says, tapping Miles's temple. “Proud of you, Miles.”

Miles grins at him. “I know.”

“You won.”

“ _We_  won.”

A large oval manifests behind them. Peter looks through it and there's a bedroom with a drum set in the corner and walls covered in posters of rock bands. Music sheets litter the floor, drum sticks used as weights to keep them pinned down.

“That's me,” Gwen says. She doesn't try hugging Miles again, but she does lean close and whisper something in his ear that makes him bite back a smile.

“Deal,” he says.

Gwen leaves him to stand in front of Peter. “It was nice meeting you,” she says. “Do you feel a little less alone knowing we're out there?”

“Yeah,” Peter says. “I think I do. Will I … will I ever see you again?”

“I guess we'll find out,” Gwen says. She shakes Tony's hand. “Thanks for the help, Mr. Stark. And do your world a favor and never get into the coffee making business.”

She smiles at Peter B. and he nods once, an unspoken conversation passed between them. She steps through the portal into her room and it closes after her, opens again to reveal another bedroom, this one smaller, covered in artwork and cluttered with notebooks and markers and clothes, everything thrown about.

Miles hesitates. He's moved closer to Peter without Peter realizing, and their arms brush against each other.

“I didn't even get to know you,” Miles says.

Peter brings moisture to his mouth and licks his lips. “How old are you?”

“Fourteen. You?”

“Sixteen.”

“Cool,” Miles says. He shifts, their wrists knocking, and casts a quick glance at Strange. “I guess I gotta go.” He lowers his voice. “We'll talk more later.”

“Huh?”

“Peter,” he says, to Peter B. now. “I'll see ya, yeah?”

“Always in your heart,” Peter B. says, and Peter frowns. He can't be the only one noticing how weird they're acting, but he might be the only one figuring out why. No one is actually saying goodbye to each other.

Peter B. points with his pizza. “Your shoe's untied.”

“I know,” Miles says, flashing a grin. “It's a choice.” He disappears as soon as he's in his room, and the final portal opens up for Peter B. outside a house, right in front of the pathway leading up to the door. He scoops the box of pizza off the floor and checks it to make sure there are still slices left.

“My time has come,” he says. “I'm not one for sappy endings, so can I offer anyone some pizza? No? Just me? Can't argue with that.” He stops in front of Peter and tugs on his curls with his free hand. “Like looking in a mirror. Hey, come here a sec.”

They move far enough away to be out of earshot of Tony and Strange, but Peter B. whispers so quiet Peter can only just make it out.

“Keep this between us,” he says, and opens the box to show Peter there's more than just pizza inside. The particle accelerator is there, and it's glowing, its screen lit and flashing numbers. “We'll be back soon. All of us.”

“You fixed it? How? When?”

Peter B. closes the lid. “It was never broken.”

“What?”

“We were gonna visit Miles after visiting you, but it looks like the goober pulled him from his universe by mistake. Goobers always have some technical difficulties. Dr. Strange ruined our plans.”

“I –” Peter struggles to find the words he needs. “But why?”

“We were looking for you,” Peter B. says. “We wanted to see how easy it would be to bring us all together. And I wanted to make sure you weren't alone. Turns out you're not.”

There's no time for Peter to digest this. Strange's patience has run thin, and he clears his throat to let them know they've reached their limits.

Peter B. goes back to Tony. “Take care of him,” he says. “Don't let him turn out like me.”

Tony has no point of reference to know what Peter B. means, but still he nods. “Yeah, sure. I'll do what I can.”

Peter B. salutes him with a pizza slice and stuffs it into his mouth, waving to Strange as he backs himself through the portal. He winks at Peter, a secret, a promise. He's coming back. They all are. And Peter will be ready when they do.

The portal seals itself closed.

“Okay,” Tony says after a moment, his voice loud in the foyer. “What the hell was that?”

Strange just sighs.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of a plotless story, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway! Thanks for reading!


End file.
